Lehigh Valley IronPigs 1, Toledo Mud Hens 0 (box)
The Toledo Mud Hens never got going in a Saturday night 1-0 loss to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
A pair of rehabbing major leaguers set the tone on the mound for the IronPigs, and the Mud Hens couldn’t capitalize, failing to push across the equalizer.
Mud Hens can’t string anything together vs. Wheeler
Toledo faced 11-year MLB veteran Zach Wheeler, who is rehabbing from rib resection surgery he underwent last September to address venous thoracic outlet syndrome. Scheduled for three innings or 45-50 pitches, he only needed 38.
Wheeler struck out the side
in the first, all three coming on the curveball. He froze Wenceel Perez on one that caught the outer edge of the zone, and Eduardo Valencia and Trei Cruz swung over balls below the zone. Max Clark drew a one-out, full-count walk, laying off an inside four-seamer, and Jace Jung ambushed a cutter left over the middle of the plate for a pair of baserunners in the inning.
Max Anderson led off the second with a base hit, jumping on a fastball just like Jung. It ricocheted off Carter Kieboom’s glove but would’ve taken a great play to get the out. Corey Julks nearly grounded into a double play, but he beat out the throw to first by less than half a step. Gage Workman grounded out to third, and Ben Malgeri lined out to second.
Wheeler got his lone 1-2-3 inning in the third, getting Perez to pop out to shortstop, Clark to ground out to first and Jung to ground out to short. Again, Toledo failed to hit anything hard. All three outs came off the bat at 75 mph or slower. Workman’s groundout in the second was the only hard-hit ball off Wheeler.
Sammons cruised through four, struggled in fifth
Bryan Sammons got the start for the Mud Hens and was mostly effective through 4 2/3 innings. He gave up one run on five hits and a walk, but most of the damage came in the fifth inning. He retired the side for a clean first inning. Sammons worked his four-seam and cutter in early before turning to the curveball with two strikes. All three outs in the first came on contact, but nothing came off the bat over 94 mph.
Kieboom jumped on a cutter for a 112.1-mph single into left field to open the second — the hardest-hit ball of the day — but Sammons recovered nicely. He got Rene Pinto on the ground to short, Liover Peguero popped out to second and Christian Cairo flied out to center.
It took until the third for Sammons to record a strikeout. He froze Oscar Mercado with a changeup and Sergio Alcantara on a high sweeper. Pedro Leon singled softly into right with two outs, but Sammons struck out the side, getting Felix Reyes to swing over a changeup.
Kieboom worked a four-pitch walk off Sammons in the fourth, but he got the other three batters out with relative ease.
The fifth is where things got out of hand, if only slightly. Cairo and Mercado led off with back-to-back singles, the latter coming on a push bunt into no-man’s-land on the right side. Sammons got two outs, but he gave up an RBI single into shallow center against Reyes. That ended Sammons’ day. Cole Waites came in for four pitches and one out to end the fifth.
Sammons’ velocity was down for most of the night, averaging 89.1 mph on the fastball. He averaged 91.5 the last time he was tracked by Statcast — in 2024. Low velocity is typical this early in the year, and he should ramp it up moving forward assuming there’s nothing wrong.
The cutter drew four whiffs (25%), and the changeup induced a pair of whiffs on as many swings — it also had a very low spin rate of 742 rpm, which is more than 400 below his average changeup a year ago. Sammons didn’t miss any bats with his curve, but he didn’t give up any hits on it either.
Toledo couldn’t hit Lehigh Valley’s bullpen
Toledo struggled to get hits after notching a pair in the first two innings. Lehigh Valley’s bullpen ended up allowing just two hits over the final six innings.
Orion Kerkering, who was also on a rehab assignment, retired the side in order. Valencia grounded out softly to short, Cruz watched a sinker that caught the inside of the buffer zone for strike three and Anderson grounded out to third. Cruz might have seen another pitch if he had challenged, but he opted not to.
Connor Gillespie was responsible for five of the six Toledo baserunners through the final six innings. Workman singled to center field, and a pitch hit Malgeri — both with one out. Perez killed the fifth-inning rally with a lineout to left field that Workman couldn’t get back to second base in time on. Bad baserunning from Workman there.
In the sixth, Clark walked for the second time, stole second base and moved to third on a flyout. Cruz also walked in the fifth, but Jung and Anderson struck out for the first and third outs of the inning. Another double play ended the seventh, this time nullifying a throwing error by Kieboom off the bat of Workman. Malgeri grounded into the 4-6-3 twin killing.
Genesis Cabrera went 1-2-3 in the eighth. Clark tried to sneak a bunt in for a base hit, but it went right back to the pitcher. Chase Shugart earned the save in the ninth, working around a leadoff single from Valencia through the left side — 99.4 mph off the bat. Cruz struck out, Anderson flied out to left and Julks ended the game on a flyout to right.
Mud Hens bullpen mostly matches Lehigh Valley
Toledo threw a different pitcher in each of the final three innings. Burch Smith, Drew Sommers and Tyler Mattison got the ball in that order.
Smith went 1-2-3 in the sixth, striking out Kieboom on a clock violation and Pinto on an eighth-pitch curveball. He was mostly fastball (94.4 mph average), but he drew two whiffs on the other nine pitches he threw. The curveball and sinker combined for four called strikes/whiffs on five tries.
Sommers had to work around a one-out single and walk, but he ended the seventh with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout to first from Reyes. The lefty stuck to his sinker-slider mix for 70% of his 20 pitches, throwing three four-seamers and three changeups for just one strike. The slider was solid, drawing three whiffs on six swings.
Mattison allowed the first three batters he faced to reach base. He walked De La Cruz to open the frame. Clark saved a run with a smart throw to third after Kieboom singled off Workman’s glove at second. Pinto’s walk wouldn’t have brought De La Cruz in, but Peguero’s flyout to right would have. Cairo struck out swinging to end the inning.
Mattison is all four-seam and slider. He drew three whiffs on eight swings and added five more called strikes over 25 pitches (32%).
Odds and ends
Lehigh had three pitch violations (in a single inning) and two failed challenges, but those didn’t impact the score in any way.
Pérez: 0-4, K
Clark: 0-2, 2 BB, SB (2)
Sammons: 4.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 3 K
Next Game: It’s a 4:05 p.m. ET start in Lehigh Valley on Sunday.
